Today at Calder is "Extreme Day," an assortment of different and ridiculous race conditions. On the bizarre end, they are running two races simultaneously, a dirt sprint and a turf route. The King George Wrong Way Starter Stakes will be run clockwise around three turns on the turf. The Rocket Man is a whirlwind quarter mile sprint that will feature two time Golden Shaheen winner Caller One, now a nine-year old who has made this his lone start each of the last two years. Each of these races is sure to lure me to the TV, but the most significant race of the day will be the one with the biggest purse:

The $250k Bob Umphrey Turf Marathon will be run over two miles (around four turns) and is the longest stakes race on the American flat racing calendar. The race itself looks to be a cinch for One Off, who has been competing in graded stakes in California. What excites me about this race is that it is one of the only tests of stamina in American racing. There has been a continual erosion of stamina in the pedigree of American thoroughbreds which corresponds to an ever declining number of races for stayers.* In the antebellum period, racehorses often competed in multiple four mile heats in a single afternoon. In the early twentieth century there was an active circuit of "Cup" races, defined as races at 12f or above. The Jockey Club Gold Cup was run at two miles through 1975 and won by Forego, Arts and Letters, Damascus, Buckpasser, Sword Dancer, Gallant Man, Citation, Princequillo, War Admiral, Gallant Fox, Twenty Grand, and Kelso (five consecutive times).

What do we have left for stayers? The San Juan Capistrano, contested over 14f with its start at the top of Santa Anita’s downhill turf chute, has been demoted to Grade II status and has not featured a top flight horse in years. There are a handful of 12f turf race (Sword Dancer, Turf Classic, Hol Turf Cup) but the group of American horses competing in these races has been subpar in recent years. Thus, Europeans have dominated the Breeders' Cup Turf. Races for dirt stayers are almost non-existent. The only graded race longer than 10f on the dirt is the Belmont Stakes. This weekend’s Grade I Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont has jumped back and forth between 10f and 12f and is currently run at the shorter distance. Other graded races for stayers like the Lawrence Realization and the Gallant Fox have either been demoted or dropped altogether. If the situation with stakes is bad for stayers, it is abysmal for the rank and file. Very few races are ever carded beyond 9f. My DRF account emails me whenever there is a dirt race at 10f or beyond. These emails are few and far between. Belmont Park is 12f in circumference so how about carding some dirt races around two turns? I wonder if they even bother plowing the first turn after the morning works. This is unfortunate for the connections of India Halo. Despite her nice win last out over the turf, she is faster on the dirt, with strong showings in the 10f Ladies Handicap and the 13f Gallant Fox on the Aqueduct Inner. I still expect her to put up a good fight tomorrow at Calder, but she won't be good enough to stay with One Off. Three entrants who are bred to run all day: Princeofthestage (Theatrical-Verbatim cross); Clevedale (Summer Squall-Unbridled), and Tacit Agreement (Unbridled-Turkoman).

The Bob Umphrey Turf Marathon is a nice throwback and let’s hope it becomes an annual tradition with graded status.  

*The causality maybe backward here. Empirical studies find that all else equal route races draw 3-5% less in handle. Perhaps this is the driving force behind the shortening of races that has resulting in more speed oriented pedigrees. The chicken or the egg?